Seems each year the crazy random mess I call my life gets even more crazy. I write here to share that rather it be the sad times or the fun times. It is great stress relief. Thanks for reading!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

How does your garden grow

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planting onions for Papa :)

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﻿Well it seems like only last week when we were out tilling, raking and planting our little garden (with the help of Papa) Some would say this was walking on the edge of child labor

<~~~ or that it was just a posed picture because there isn't any way you can get all 5 of those girls to work in the garden at the same time. Well that may be true now that the weeding needs to be done and its nearing 100 degrees out, but at planting time they were all fighting over who got to plant what. It was fun because it was new. Its been just over a month and a half and things are coming along pretty great. I know, it seems nuts that I am so excited to be growing a garden. I tried this once with very little results. As I have mentioned I have my dad helping out so very much, and well everyone is helping really. Stephen, the girls(when they have nothing better to do) and Katie, Christie and Haleigh. Now Katie and Christie are helping because they still think this stuff is fun. I think Haleigh was helping because she wants to make papa happy. God love these girls, everyone of them want to do that really. Anyway so we started with the plowing and such a few weeks ago, the last week of April really and that last weekend we planted peanuts, potatoes and tomatoes. mothers day weekend we planted so much more. onions(red & white), lettuce, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, squash(4 different kinds), watermelons(sugar baby & black diamond...mmm), cantaloupe, corn, more tomatoes(7 different kinds...because you can never have too many tomatoes right?) bell peppers(3 different colors), jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, garlic, green beans and okra. Well I think that is all we planted, but I am sure as soon as I post this I will remember something that I have forgotten. Oh and yes a flower (play) house for Katie and Christie.(its silly, but they were so excited) you will have to wait for pics of that, I'm sure it is going to be great.

Just a couple of weeks into it and you can see
lots of green out there in that patch of dirt.

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Anyway the first Wednesday after planting, i went out to water everything (and pray that the Lord would help us out on this part at least once a week to save on the water bill a bit.) and noticed that nearly everything we had planted had come up. I know that don't sound believable, but sure enough it was there. I don't have a photo to post to show you, but only a couple of weeks into it this is what we had. ~~~>﻿﻿

I have to admit I was sure only half of what we planted would actually make it to harvest time. But here we are mid June and we are really starting to get yummy veggies fresh from our own garden.

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First salad fresh from the garden!

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I was so excited the day that I finally got to pick enough lettuce and spinach to make a small salad, now we're getting a little of everything. cucumbers, onions, green tomatoes, squash and we are waiting...waiting...waiting on the watermelon to do its thing. (well i think that's what the girls are waiting on anyway) it's now time to plant some pumpkins so they will be ready for making Jack-o-lanterns this fall. There is something new to learn almost everyday. Like just the other day, Stephen, the girls and I were out in the garden (stephen watering while the girls and I do the real work...shh don't tell him i said that) pulling weeds. between the 3 of us girls we pulled a kitchen garbage bag full of grass. When we were done, I was carrying the bag towards the trash and out of the blue I remembered how much our chickens love fresh green grass.

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Happy hens (and a couple of roosters)

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So not only are we working to make our garden look nice and grow well but our chickens are getting a lot of free food. saving in lots of ways these days and I am learning to love living on our little hobby farm.

Thanks for droping by for a visit. Have a good day and stay cool out there. im sure it is going to be brutal this summer.